Skirt Rock

This time, the episode title is “Skirt Rock”, which nicely matches the translation I worked out back when I first watched the episode.

With the former queen asking Janggeum to not follow court rituals with here, it feels as it maybe she only recently left the palace, where after the last episode, I determined she must has left before the first season. If she left before the first season, however, why would the king have taken so long to get the ornament back to her? Maybe they married between seasons, but she had to leave due to an action by her family in that short amount of time, leaving the king to have to hurry and remarry. This is going to bother me until I know for certain when events with the former queen took place.

I still wonder how, after the girls get the skirt up for the king to see, why it is that Yeonsaeng and Changi have dirt on their faces. It’s Janggeum who took the flying leap off the cliff, not those two. At the end of that scene, it’s nice to see the view from the cliff, overlooking the palace and town down below. It gives a good feel of the size of their home.

It’s good to know who the older man and woman are now (the queen’s parents), as that was a mystery to me on my first watch through this of season. And the man still has a crazy hat.

I’m finding myself in the negative position of “trying to like” series two here. It might be partly because this was a monologue-heavy episode, and the best I could do was pick out names and a small number of words I know to give a touch of context.

…I’m glad to say this is no longer the case. There’s no “trying to like” season two. I’ve enjoyed the first two episodes so far.

Once again, Suro is given an extreme role, in a bad way. He’s seeming less and less like a developed character and more and more like a pitiful attempt at comic relief. Hopefully things improve for him, because I do like him as a character. He’s probably my favorite after Yeonsaeng, so it’s sad to see him in this state.

This time around, he didn’t seem so bad this episode. I don’t feel anymore like they’re trying to force him to be comic relief. Instead, he seems to have the same level of comic as he did in the first season.

With the potential of others knowing an item from the king was being transported, it was smart of Janggeum to put a fake item in the bag she was carrying …

Speaking of comical things, it’s fun to look back on my perception of the episodes from when I didn’t have the English subtitles to reveal what was going on. I was able to pick up on a lot of what was happening, but completely missed that it was Changi who brought the roots along to snack on, not some attempt from Janggeum to fake anyone who stops her to look for the item Court Lady Han gave her to take.

I have no idea of the significance of the pin between the lady Janggeum delivered it to (whose name I have as Sin-ssi), and Jungjong.

I think I happened upon former Queen Sin’s name on a Japanese web site about the series, which listed characters. That’s also where I had gotten Pansul’s name for my original commentary on episode 26 (as I hadn’t seen the live action series yet to know of him). What I wonder now is about the -ssi suffix. After seeing the live action “Jewel in the Palance” a while back, and very recently having finished the live action “Jumong”, I should know what “Queen” is in Korean, although I cannot recall. But it’s nothing like “ssi”. Rather, I’m guessing that “ssi” is a name-suffix.

I’ve heard a number of name suffixes from these series. There’s 오빠 (oppa), such as Janggeum calling her adoptive brother “Dongi-oppa”. I figured this was a term for an older brother, but Yeonsaeng has called him the same, so I figured maybe it’s a term used for an older male, like like how in Japanese, a younger girl may call an older girl onee-san, even if they are not sisters. Turns out it’s both.

Then of course there’s 아버지 (abeoji), which I most recently recall hearing Haeya say to her father back in season one, but it also came up a lot in “Jumong” which I watched recently, and it was heard in “Jewel in the Palace” early on by Janggeum’s when her father is being dragged away. And opposite abeoji is mother, or 어머니 (eomeoni), another I recall hearing a lot in “Jumong” (especially by Prince Youngpo).

씨 (ssi) is listed on Wiktionary as “sir or madam, Mr. or Ms.”, but it’s also noted:

Applying this honorific directly to a surname is considered rude or a way of indicting that the addressee is a social inferior. As a mark of respect, it should follow either the full name or just the given name.

Those are all relation-related suffixes. There are also suffixes that are commonly heard which have confused for a bit, such as “Tayo-ya” in “Janggeum”, or in “Jumong” when I saw “Oi” in the subtitles and heard “Oi-ya” spoken. It turns out that 야 (ya) may be added to the end of a name that ends in a vowel, and 아 (a) to the end of a name ending in a consonant. These wouldn’t be used with someone who isn’t relatively close, though. And it’s only used when speaking to the person, not when using their name while talking to someone else.

One that I’ve been wondering for a while now is 장금이 (Janggeum-i). As it turns out, 이 (i) is a “Particle marking a grammatical subject ending with a consonant.” (If the name ended in a vowel, the particle would be 가 [ga].)

As for Korean words this time around, Pansul said the pigs he brought were from Gangweondo, one of the eight provinces of the Joseon Dynasty.

Court Lady Choi tells Geumyeong that the new queen’s parents are in Geunjeongjeon, Wikipedia says “is the throne hall of Gyeongbokgung where the king formally granted audiences to his officials, gave declarations of national importance, and greeted foreign envoys and ambassadors during the Joseon Dynasty.” I wonder if this means Gyeongbok Palace is King Jungjong’s palace.

Court Lady Han tells Janggeum to bring back the leftover groceries to the warehouse at Saongwon, but I cannot find anything on this.

The Hanyang Trading Troop may refer to Seoul, which was known by the name Hanyang during Joseon.